In soccer we also like visuals, we love the game, the colors, the excitement, and of course shouting a goal! Research around visual education confirms that humans are great at processing information through visual representations, including diagrams, photographs, illustrations, flow charts, and graphs, which are often used by brands to educate their audience or share a complicated story. For example, social media is a very common channel to share infographics and social graphics, social graphics is a powerful tool for storytelling, they allow complex ideas to be communicated quickly and effectively through visual elements. Audiences want their content fast and to the point, GenZs and Millennials are more likely to engage with posts that have an image than just, text, maybe that was the reason IG grew much bigger than Twitter, even though the bluebird company then added the function to attach an image to the 120 characters. Yes, fans process images much more efficiently than text, making social graphics more memorable and impactful to convey a message.
This week we saw a beautiful example of a social graphic shared by the MLS account with multiple elements representing the whole league, all the teams that are part of the league, and each one with a player representing the club. As well little stories that represented something extra about those players, for example, Hani Mukhtar is represented with a cartoon but with the new Nashville all-black kit that was introduced a week ago + he is holding some trophies, for those unfamiliar with the league, and he won the 2022 MVP Award. Things like this are possible through a social graph that is giving so much information but is easy to digest and understand.
Another interesting story we found is a St. Louis fan with a scarf with the sign “Inaugural Season” this is the debut of a team like St. Louis City SC, which is making its first appearance in the League, after being selected as an expansion team, founded in 2019. The team will be competing in the Western Conference with the current Champion LAFC, the arch-rival LA Galaxy, and another new but not-so-new Austin FC.
Now that we are talking about Austin FC we love the cartoon with the Austin FC midfielder Sebastian Drussi using his classic number 10 and sharing a moment with a famous owner, Mathew McConaughey, that has been highly engaged with the team, and he has even been leading the supporter’s section, with the drum and starting the chants of the famous group called “Los Verdes”, The Greens in English.
Just like we found bigger stories around this beautiful social graphic, share with us the stories you found interesting in this social post. Just like sports, the idea is to create an emotional connection with the viewer and evoke a desired response. Obtain a combination of visual storytelling and design elements enables social graphics to tell a larger story that resonates with the audience.